CAIRO — Nearly a hundred small artifacts, some dating back to the time of the pharaohs, have gone missing from a museum in southern Egypt, officials said Wednesday.

The Ministry of Antiquities said 96 artifacts, mostly small figurines and beads, disappeared from the Aswan Museum's storehouse.

Employees noticed a number of artifacts missing, the statement said. A committee looking into the objects' disappearance checked the storehouse's inventory and found that the lock on the inner door had been broken.